go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident/ and you'll find a photo of dick cheney speaking to a group of marines at camp pendleton, calif. according to the caption, cheney told them:. "And the terrorists will fail because men and women like you stand in their way."
scroll down the page and you'll find a cheney bio full of praise for his government service. what you wont see there (or in his bio at http://www.georgewbush.com --the official bush-cheney re-election site) is any reference to the five years cheney ran halliburton corporation.
you may or may not be know there are at least two ongoing investigations seeking to determine the nature and scope of services provided to the iranian national oil company by halliburton corporation through a subsidiary chartered in the cayman islands. the cayman islands office is always empty because the 'real' working offices are in dubai and tehran. it is illegal for an american company to contract with the islamic government of iran. halliburton claims the cayman islands subsidiary--halliburton products and services ltd--is independent of american control. sooner--or more likely later, if bush-cheney are re-elected; so far its taken 3 years without any indication of resolution--the investigations will reach a conclusion. until those investigations have run their course, both the company and cheney are presumed to have conducted their business in compliance with us law.
there are other issues worth considering however. issues that go beyond the artifice of legality and the technicality of compliance. among them are these: why would halliburton agree to provide services of any type to iran in the first place? why does the us government give preference on huge contracts to a company that is working to the benefit of our enemies in iran. how does the head of a company that assists iran wind up vice-president of the usa?
nearly 24 years ago, the us embassy in tehran was overrun by students acting in the name of the new islamic republic of iran. 66 people were taken hostage, 14 of whom were released shortly thereafter. the rest were finally freed after 444 days of captivity in january, 1981 following a year and a half of negotiations and the transfer of money and weapons to iran. over the next 11 years, the islamic government of iran funded/supported/assisted in the kidnapping and murder of americans in lebanon as well as suicide bomb attacks on both the american embassy and a marine barracks in beirut resulting in the deaths of 258 americans including 244 us marines.
in 1993, then president clinton proclaimed a new policy of 'dual containment' which would punish iran for its support of islamic terrorists, discourage iranian efforts to more substantially destabilize the middle east and impede iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons capability. in april, 1995 clinton signed an executive order banning trade with iran. the next year, congress passed the libya-iran sanctions act.
cheney, former deputy chief of staff for gerald ford, congressman from wyoming from 1977-1987 and secretary of defense from march 1989 to january 1993--who was, presumably, privy to intelligence about those iranian activities that prompted clinton's containment of iran--was appointed chairman, president and ceo of halliburton in august 1995. how halliburton chose cheney...or why the company would even consider a person with virtually no experience running a business (or for that matter virtually no experience doing anything in the private sector) for that position...are matters for another article.
as head of halliburton, cheney publicly advocated having the government drop sanctions against american businesses helping iran and libya to enrich themselves. while conceding his company was already engaged in contracts with those two countries, but only through subsidiaries, cheney emphaticaly stated halliburton would not do any business with iraq. dresser industries had no such scruples. halliburton's purchase of dresser industries is considered one of the highpoints of cheneys tenure there. as a consequence of that purchase, halliburton assumed dresser's contracts with iraq. as a result, while cheney was head of halliburton, the organization was working on behalf of libya, iran and iraq
as i've already noted, there are ongoing investigations into allegations that halliburton under cheney violated the spirit if not the letter of those sanctions prohibiting american entities from doing business with iran. until those investigations are concluded, halliburton and cheney deserve the benefit of the doubt as far as legalities go.
yet it seems pertinent to wonder why a patriotic american such as cheney would--for any reason--consider providing services that could only help our enemies in iran. cheney's not a foolish man, so it couldn't be out of stupidity. nor is it likely he was merely not paying attention. corporations don't bestow $30 million dollar stock option packages on the inept.
was it all about money?
cheney was less than candid when he announced in 2000, "Since I've left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice-president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't now for over three years."
according to the congressional research service, patriot cheney received $205.,298 in deferred salary from halliburton during 2001 and $162,392 in 2002. similar payments are scheduled through 2005 with an insurance policy in place to guarantee them even if halliburton were to go belly up. halliburton's iranian profits may only represent a few dollars of those payments (it may be more, rather than less disturbing that cheney didn't make a lot of money for permitting his former company to assist our enemies in iran).
if terrorists fail--as we all hope they will--it apparently wont be because men like dick cheney as head of halliburton stood in their way. unlike the marines in that photo, he had 'other interests'.